- Feb 10, 2014
- 188
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This post may make no horse sense to my fellow birders but it's be bugging me and I just have to ask, but first the back story.
I've been under a tremendous amount of stress both in my homelife and in my job, and that's only indirectly what this is about. As a result of all this stress, twice I've gone to bed without closing the coop and twice I've awaken to fewer chickens. I had the most beautiful pair of bantam sultans: hen and roo,, and it was sheer luck that I got them, they are now gone. I had the sweetest bantam white cochin, who was the best brood hen ever, also gone. my Americana (really EE) George - seen in my avatar, produced the prettiest white hen with one of my buff Orpingtons, who was also a great brood hen, both my EE hen and her mom also gone. In all I've lost 7 hens and 2 roos to my dumb negligence - please force yourselves to withhold any judgement, you cannot possibly say to me anything worse than I have already said to myself. I have since set up an alarm system which reminds me to button up everybody well before dark.
Now it could be because I feel so bad about it, but i'm wondering do flocks miss their members. It seems that my roo is a bit tense of late, and no wonder, he's got to pick up where apparently i'm letting them down. More specifically I've noticed one of my hens started to lay eggs with extremely weak shells. I"ve started adding vitamins to their water and give them layer feed but she's still not producing good eggs, I think I got one last week but that was all. THey're all about a year and a hald. Could this be a result of their trauma, or am I anthropomorphizing this too much?
What do you think?
And thanks!
I've been under a tremendous amount of stress both in my homelife and in my job, and that's only indirectly what this is about. As a result of all this stress, twice I've gone to bed without closing the coop and twice I've awaken to fewer chickens. I had the most beautiful pair of bantam sultans: hen and roo,, and it was sheer luck that I got them, they are now gone. I had the sweetest bantam white cochin, who was the best brood hen ever, also gone. my Americana (really EE) George - seen in my avatar, produced the prettiest white hen with one of my buff Orpingtons, who was also a great brood hen, both my EE hen and her mom also gone. In all I've lost 7 hens and 2 roos to my dumb negligence - please force yourselves to withhold any judgement, you cannot possibly say to me anything worse than I have already said to myself. I have since set up an alarm system which reminds me to button up everybody well before dark.
Now it could be because I feel so bad about it, but i'm wondering do flocks miss their members. It seems that my roo is a bit tense of late, and no wonder, he's got to pick up where apparently i'm letting them down. More specifically I've noticed one of my hens started to lay eggs with extremely weak shells. I"ve started adding vitamins to their water and give them layer feed but she's still not producing good eggs, I think I got one last week but that was all. THey're all about a year and a hald. Could this be a result of their trauma, or am I anthropomorphizing this too much?
What do you think?
And thanks!
